Anheuser-Busch isn’t saying “neigh” just yet to putting its Clydesdales in the Super Bowl.
The longtime Super Bowl advertising leader will ask fans starting later Friday to vote on three possible Budweiser ads on the brand’s Facebook page. One of them includes the company’s trademark Clydesdale horses. All are by advertising agency DDB.
Earlier this week, the brewer showed off the contenders for its five minutes of Super Bowl ads. None included the horses, which were last absent from the game in 2001.
But the company said it got a 60-second cut of a new Clydesdale ad that it likes better than a half-minute one it saw previously, and now the horses just might be in again.
Keith Levy, marketing vice president for the St. Louis-based subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said fans will have the next several days to vote. The game airs Feb. 7 on CBS.
The possible Clydesdale commercial tells the story of friendship between a young Clydesdale and a young steer.
The company regularly films more commercials than it needs for the Super Bowl and whittles them down through consumer testing, often just before the game. But this marks the first time the brewer is putting the ads up for a vote so publicly. It’s also a change for a company that is typically guarded about its Super Bowl ads.
“We’re very guided by what the consumers say and not necessarily what I think, or what the brand teams think or what the agencies think,” Levy said. “We’re selling beer to consumers so it’s very important to us to make sure we’re resonating with them.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More